Cultural intelligence
African and diasporic knowledge, memory and identity are active sources—not decorative references.
THE ARTISTIC PRACTICE
Image, object and material light
A hybrid practice bringing Renaissance-inspired composition into conversation with African and diasporic cultural knowledge, emerging image technologies and exhibition-grade material experimentation.
NEW · INSIDE THE WORK · OBJECT AND MEMORY
The Vase That Remembered the Garden
Making an Object, a Memory and a History That Never Existed
“The vase contains the memory. The painting allows us to enter it.”
Enter a constructed museum encounter in which an imagined Italian vase, an invented lakeside garden and a deliberately fictional provenance combine to make a history feel materially present.
Enter the vase and garden →INTERACTIVE DIGITAL ATELIER
Enter the Painting
Move from Hidden Structure to Finished Surface
“The finished image is only one moment in a longer history of decisions.”
Move between the underdrawing, tonal ébauche, first glazes and finished portrait, then inspect the eye, lips, skin and gallery presentation at close range.
Enter the interactive artwork →NEW · ARTIST’S VOICE · CULTURAL MEMORY
Who Gets to Inherit the Renaissance?
Cultural Memory, Historical Authority and the Contemporary Reimagining of the Classical Portrait
“The aim is not to place a Black woman inside an unchanged Renaissance. The aim is to allow her presence to change the territory.”
A long-form essay on Black presence, the archive, visual authority, AI and what it means to inherit a tradition without obeying its historical boundaries.
Read the new essay →ARTIST’S VOICE · A FOUNDATIONAL TEXT
My Contemporary Renaissance
Building an Art Practice Between History and the Future
“My work begins in conversation with the past, but it is not travelling backwards.”
In this first-person essay, Jabbi reflects on the discipline, cultural knowledge, historical research and technological experimentation behind his developing art practice.
Read Jabbi’s artistic philosophy →ARTIST’S VOICE · THE CREATIVE JOURNEY
The Journey of Creation
From Renaissance Craft to the Digital Atelier
“Every layer is a decision. Every decision belongs to the artist.”
A personal account of the inspiration, research, experimentation and six-stage Renaissance-led process behind Jabbi’s new digital oil paintings and fine-art drawings.
Read The Journey of Creation →ILLUSTRATED STUDIO PROCESS
Painting Without Wet Paint
How I Reconstructed a Renaissance Oil Painting Process in the Digital Studio
“The purpose was never to add a convincing texture at the end. It was to build a history into the surface.”
Follow the completed portrait backwards through prepared linen, underdrawing, earth-colour underpainting, dead colour, glazing, scumbling and final macro inspection.
Enter the illustrated process →ARTIST’S VOICE · STUDIO METHODOLOGY
The Alchemical Algorithm
Precision, Control, and the Renaissance Revival in Digital Art
“The artist stands not as a passive consumer of automated outputs, but as a master craftsman.”
A detailed six-stage account of how AI can be orchestrated through substrate, underdrawing, chiaroscuro, historical pigment, glazing and varnishing—placing artistic judgement at the centre of the process.
Read The Alchemical Algorithm →Digital image-making
AI-assisted and digital processes become instruments within a human-led artistic practice.
Material transformation
Raised texture, fine-art papers, mineral pigments, metallic finishes and fabrication move the image towards objecthood.
Exhibition presence
Scale, framing, light and surface are considered as part of the artwork’s final encounter with its audience.